Speechless
by purplepagoda
Summary: Cam receives an unexpected package. How will this effect the rest of the gang? Is it as simple as it seems? This is package is one that will leave the gang anything but speechless.
1. Chapter 1

"So are you ready for Christmas?" Seeley asks Cam as they stand over an autopsy table.

"No. I... nothing is ready."

"Have you started shopping?"

"I'm done shopping," she admits.

"So why aren't you ready?"

"Luca is coming to stay with me."

"Over Christmas? I thought that she wasn't talking to you."

"She's still not talking to me, but she's coming to stay with me."

"For how long?"

"Until she goes away to college, if she goes away for college."

"What do you mean?"

"She's coming to live with me."

"Why?"

"It's a long story," she sighs.

"How old is she now?"

"She'll be fifteen in January."

"I can't believe that she's that old. I haven't seen her since she was... eight or nine. Has it really been that long?"

"Yes."

"So are we done here?"

"Yep. The report is almost done, and the body is going to be released to the family tomorrow."

"I'll see you on Monday," he tells her as he walks out.

On Monday when Seeley arrives he finds Angela in Temperance's office chatting away.

"What are you two ladies so talkative about this morning?"

"She must be gone now," Angela comments.

"Yeah. They left ten minutes ago."

"Who?"

Angela begins to explain, "This morning some kid came looking for Cam."

"What did she look like?"

"She was tall and skinny. Wait how did you know that the kid was a she g-man?" Angela questions.

"Was she about fourteen or fifteen?"

"Yes why?" Angela answers.

"Her name is Luca," he informs them.

"Do you know her?" Temperance asks.

"Yeah,"

"Who is she? A niece, or cousin... or what?" Angela asks.

"No," he shakes his head with a smile, "Luca is Cam's daughter."

"What do you mean she's her daughter?"Angela questions.

"I thought that she said that she didn't want kids," Temperance adds.

"Luca is Cam's daughter?" Angela wonders.

"Yes," Seeley nods.

"How?" Temperance asks.

"Bones, what do you mean how?"

"She and I had a conversation and she told me that she didn't want kids," Temperance recalls.

"Maybe she meant she didn't want anymore," Seeley answers.

"No. I'm pretty sure she said something about how she didn't want to give up her figure for a kid, or something along those lines," Temperance argues.

"Well she's got a kid," Seeley tells them.

"Is she adopted?" Temperance asks.

"What? No," Seeley shakes his head.

"So then...," Angela tries to straighten things out.

"She gave birth to her," Seeley answers.

"How old is she?" Angela asks.

"She's fourteen."

"So why haven't we ever met of her, or heard of her for that matter?" Angela wonders.

"Luca lives... lived with her dad. She and Cam are like oil and water, they're complete opposites."

"So? It's her kid," Angela points out.

"Cam wanted a career."

"So she abandoned her kid?"Temperance asks.

"No. She did what she thought was best for her."

"By abandoning her?" Temperance repeats.

"Bones she didn't abandon her. Luca's dad chose to raise her," he answers.

"Why?" Angela inquires.

"It's a long story," Seeley answers.

"Angela it's obvious. He took her because Cam didn't want her," Temperance points out.

"Is that true?" Angela casts her glance to Seeley.

"Cam wasn't ready for a kid. She never wanted to have them. When she got pregnant she decided that she wasn't emotionally, or financially ready to take on the responsibility of a child. Look I shouldn't be discussing this with the two of you. She's going to kill me. It's not my place to tell you all of this."

"So what was she planning to do?" Temperance ignores what he said about not telling them.

"What do you mean?"

"With Luca?"

"She was going to give her up for adoption," he answers.

"Didn't her dad have issues with that?"

"They had broken up. When she had Luca she called him, and told him. He decided to take Luca and raise her by himself."

"So does Cam see her?" Temperance asks.

"Only when Luca chooses to see Cam."

"Why?"

"Look Bones I don't know? You should ask her if you really want to know," he tells them.

"Is she coming back?"

"Of course she is? Bones what do you mean is she coming back?"

"Is Cam coming back today?"

"I would assume that she is."

"Wait how do you know all of this?" Angela questions suspiciously.

"I've known Cam for a long time," he admits.

"Right," Angela nods.

"She'll probably be back soon, so we should get to work," Temperance changes the subject.

"On what? We don't have a case," Booth reminds her.

"I'm headed down to bone storage if you want to help," she tells them.

They groan, but head to the platform. By lunch time they have identified the man in bone storage along with how he was killed. A few minutes after Booth leave to pick up Thai food Cam finally returns.

She finds Temperance and Angela sitting in Temperance's office waiting on Seeley to return.

"I'm back if you need anything," she tells them.

"Where did you go?" Angela asks.

"I had to take Luca home."

"Who is Luca?" Angela questions.

"She was the girl who was here earlier," Cam answers.

"But who is she in relation to you?" Angela probes.

"She's my daughter," Cam admits.

"I didn't know that you had a daughter," Temperance adds.

"It's a long story."

"Oh..."

"She was living with her dad."

"Does she look like him?" Angela wonders.

"I don't know. Sort of, maybe," Cam digs around in her purse. She pulls out a picture and hands it to Angela. "That's at her eighth grade graduation."

Angela studies the picture. The girl is in the middle. Cam is on one side, and a tall, muscular man with skin the color of cinnamon sugar is on the other side.

"This is her dad?" Angela asks.

"Uh huh," Cam nods.

Angela hands the picture back.

"Anyway I've got some case reports that I've got to finish."

"Ok."

"Let me know if you need anything," Cam tells them.

"Will do," Angela agrees.

Cam is out of earshot when Angela turns around to look at Temperance.

"What?"

"The man in that picture is not that girl's dad."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I've worked here with you long enough to know, that kid doesn't belong to the man in that picture."

"I think that you've been around Hodgins too long."

"Bren... trust me that isn't his daughter."

"Why do you think that?"

"The skin tone is wrong, the facial structure is off. The hair isn't right. None of it is right."

"You're being ridiculous."

"No I'm not. You saw the girl what did she look like to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did she look like Cam?"

"They have the same eyes and nose."

"But that's pretty much where the similarities end. Luca has a cleft chin, thin lips, and the jaw line is different."

"So?"

"That guy doesn't look like Luca."

"Seriously Angela you're being a little ridiculous."

"About what?" Booth asks joining the conversation.

"Angela doesn't think that Luca belongs to the man Cam says is her father."

"Why?"

"I saw a picture of him."

"When?"

"Cam just showed it to me."

"And?"

"She doesn't look like him."

"So?"

"Have you seen the guy?"

"Yes why?"

"Do you think that Luca looks like him?"

"No Luca doesn't really look like Will, but lots of kids don't look like their parents."

"Don't you think that Luca should be darker?"

"Why?"

"She's lighter than Cam is," Angela points out.

"So?"

"He's as dark, if not darker than Cam is."

"Not to interrupt, but I'm starving," Temperance interjects.


	2. Chapter 2

After they finish their Thai food Seeley slips out to go talk to Cam. He finds her in her office doing paperwork.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" he starts.

"Sure. What?"

"Why doesn't Luca look like Will?"

"Because genetics is a crapshoot," she answers.

"Why did Luca decide to leave her dad's?"

"She didn't decide to leave."

"So what?"

"He sent her to live with me."

"After fourteen years of raising her, he just decided to send her to live with you? Was she having problems in school or something?"

"No," she shakes her head.

Temperance finds Angela in her office staring very intensely at her computer screen.

"Ange what are you doing?"

"Nothing," she lies.

"Ange," Temperance says in an accusatory tone.

"I'm doing an experiment."

"You don't do experiments. You're not a scientist," Temperance reminds her.

"I've been thinking about Luca."

"Ange I think that you need to drop it. It isn't any of your business."

"Did Cam know Seeley fifteen years ago?"

"I don't know, probably why?"

"Her lips."

"What? Angela you're not making any sense."

"Luca's lips, tell me about them."

"Why?"

"Her top lip is pencil thin."

"What's your point? Lot's of people have thin upper lips, like Booth. His upper lip is..."

Angela cuts her off, "Exactly."

"Exactly, what?"

"I scanned the picture of all of us at last year's Christmas party. I put Cam and Booth side by side. I isolated certain features and morphed them together into an infant. I used a program to age the picture to that of a fourteen year old girl."

Temperance just stares at the screen.

"So why is she living with you now?"

"Will is married. He and his wife have two other girls. One is eight and one is three. The three year old has leukemia."

"So he doesn't have time to deal with a teenager?"

"No," she shakes her head.

"So what?"

"They were all tested, but none of them matched."

"So?"

"He had Luca tested."

"So?"

"Her DNA didn't match."

"Of course not, they're half siblings."

"No. The lab called him and asked for another sample because they thought they may have done something wrong. They collected another sample and came up with the same results. Luca doesn't have any DNA in common with the three year old."

"So the three year old isn't his?"

"No," she answers.

"I don't understand," he admits.

"This made him have Luca's DNA tested."

"And?"

"She's not his," she tells him with a lump in her throat.

"What do you mean she's not his?"

"She doesn't belong to him."

"Of course she does. Who else would she belong to?"

"I didn't know. If I had known I wouldn't have let him have her, but..."

"Camille who does she belong to?"

"It's not important," she lies.

"Camille who is her dad?"

"Not Will. I thought that he was, but I was wrong. When she was a baby I thought that she looked like me, and when she got older I started to wonder if I had made a mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"She doesn't look like him, at all."

"She's not his," he reiterates.

"I know."

"So whose is she?"

"I...when Luca was born they said that she was smaller than they had expected. That she was the size of a baby at thirty seven weeks gestation," she reveals.

"What are you saying? Cam after you broke up with him..."

She says nothing.

"The night you showed up at my doorstep crying..."

"Yeah," she nods.

"Camille is Luca mine?"

She looks away and says nothing.

"Camille..."

"Don't call me Camille," she responds.

"Does Luca belong to me?"

"I forgot."

"What?"

"I had so much to drink I completely forgot."

"Is she mine?"

"Angela," Temperance says calmly.

"Bren she looks just like him."

"Angela you're jumping to conclusions."

"I think I'm right on this one."

"Angela if it were Booth's kid he would take care of her."

"But what if he didn't know?"

"He knows about her."

"But what if he doesn't know that she's his?"

"Meaning?"

"What if for some reason or another Cam didn't tell him."

"He's an incredible father of course she would tell him."

"But what if she didn't?"

"Angela it doesn't matter. It's their business, not ours."

"We have to tell him."

"No. I'm not going to tell him that he has a kid with Cam when I don't know if it's true or not," she disagrees.

"He deserves to know if she's his."

"But it's not our place to tell him," Temperance reminds her.

"Camille answer the damn question. Is Luca my daughter?"

"Seeley I didn't... I truly thought that she belonged to Will."

"Why wouldn't you tell me? How long have you known?"

"I've had a suspicion that she didn't belong to him since she was three."

"Eleven years? You knew for eleven years and you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't know. I didn't remember that night, so I thought that she had to belong to him."

"When did you remember?"

"When he called me and told me that she didn't belong to him, he asked if I had sex with you while he and I were together."

"And what did you tell him?"

"That we didn't."

"But?"

"After I hung up I remembered that I had gone to your apartment one night and..."

"We have a daughter?"

"I don't know."

"Was there someone else?"

"No."

"So now what?"

"Do you want a DNA test?"

"I guess. Cam why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know how. I didn't want you to think that I was keeping her from you."

"Why would I think that?"

"I don't know," she admits.

"What do I do?"

"I don't know. I could ask you the same. Seeley she hates my guts. She thinks that I abandoned her and she..."

"You sort of did."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't want her. Do you have any idea what that does to a kid's psyche?"

"I did want her."

"You gave her away willingly."

"I was young, and selfish, and stupid, but I did want her. I wanted her more than anything, but I knew I couldn't take care of her. I could barely take care of myself. I couldn't give her anything. I wouldn't have been able to feed and clothe her. I wanted her."

"Have you ever told her that?"

"No why?"

"She'd probably understand."

"She wouldn't care."

"Cam she would. Her whole life all she's wanted is for you to love her."

"I do love her."

"How often do you tell her that? I don't think that she knows. I think she's convinced that you don't want her, or love her, that she's just a burden."

"Why would she think that?"

"Have you said or done anything to make her think otherwise?"


	3. ANfor Katie

_A/N: I normally don't post an author's note in the middle of a story, but I feel that it is necessary for this one. For everyone who's stomach begins to turn by the thought of Cam and Booth having a kid I must ask that you give me a chapter, or two before you quit reading. Please have a little faith in me. I dislike the idea just as much as all of you do. I promise that it's not quite what you think. _

_Thanks,_

_Purplepagoda_


	4. Chapter 3

A week later, after several periods of awkward silence between various parties at the Jeffersonian, the moment everyone has been waiting on finally happens.

"So when are you going to find out if she's yours?"

"Look Bones it doesn't matter. I'm not that impatient."

"I still can't believe that Cam has a kid."

"Bones..."

"What if she isn't yours?"

"What do you mean? Of course she's mine."

"But what if there is someone else Cam doesn't remember?"

"Temperance there is no one else."

"So then why did you agree on a DNA test?"

"I don't know. Maybe she was mixed up at birth."

"You don't think that Cam would have noticed that?"

"Probably, but it's possible."

"Booth, it's not."

"Ok, it's unlikely."

"So what do you do if she is yours?"

"I'll take care of her."

"And what if she isn't yours?"

"Temperance why are you so persistent about her not being mine?"

"Because it creates all of this awkward tension between everyone."

"Not my fault."

"It kind of is. I mean you did sleep with her."

"Bones..."

"I'm just saying."

"Well don't," he growls.

"Did you have the DNA sent away somewhere else?"

"Yes of course. That's why it's taking so long."

Temperance looks up from her desk.

"There goes the UPS guy right now."

"Temperance how many packages does the Jeffersonian receive a day?"

"I don't know."

"There are a million other packages that he could be bringing," he points out as his cell phone beeps. He pulls it out of his pocket and flips it open. He reads the text from Cam.

"Well?" Temperance asks impatiently.

"It's from Cam?"

"And?"

"She wants to see me in her office."

"So then why are you still standing around here?"

He rolls his eyes and leaves his room. Angela spots him as he passes the platform. She scurries into Brennan's office.

"So do you think that she's his?"

"Nope," Temperance shakes her head.

"Why not?"

"I just have feeling," she admits.

"You don't just have feelings. You do facts, Booth does feelings."

"She's not his."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"I..."

Angela cuts her off, "You're afraid if she's his then he'll spend more time with Cam."

"Why would I be afraid of that?"

"That leaves him less time to spend with you."

"So?"

"He's yours."

"He is not mine. He isn't a possession," she reminds her.

"But you feel like if anyone has claim over him, it's you."

"Why would I feel that way?"

"I don't know, but you do."

"How would you know?"

In Cam's office Seeley paces as she looks at the DNA profiles. She shakes her head and furrows her brow. He chews nervously on his thumbnail. She huffs, and he looks at her.

"Well?"

"I don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"You share some DNA markers, but..."

"But what?"

"You're not her father," she admits.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yes," she answers definitively.

* * *

"So Bren why don't you think she's his? She does sort of look like him."

"So? She could belong to anyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be him."

"So who else could it be?"

"Booth light," she answers after a moment of thought.

Angela gives it some consideration, "You think that Cam's daughter belongs to Booth's brother?"

"I don't know, but it's possible."

"Why do you think that?"

"They're brothers they share common characteristics, and DNA. She could very easily belong to Jared."

"You think that Cam would sleep with Booth, and then his brother close enough together to..."

"It's possible."

"Do you think she's a slut?"

"I don't know. All I know is that things happen."

"You're being ridiculous."

"Whatever," she sighs rolling her eyes.

* * *

"We share some DNA markers so... Wait a minute."

"What?"

"The next night you went out with Jared. Remember?"

"Uh huh," she nods.

"Did you have sex with him?"

"What?"

"Could Luca be Jared's?"

"Seeley..."

"Answer the question."

"I don't know. That whole week was pretty much a blur."

"Did you sleep with him?"

"I could have. I don't know."

"She's not mine, so she has to be his."

"Booth..."

"Cam I don't want to talk to you anymore," he grumbles stomping out of her office.

As he approaches Temperance's office she can see that he's fuming.

"You ok?"

He answers monosyllabically, and inaudibly with a grunt of some sort.

"Did you get the results?"

"Uh huh."

"And?"

"She's not mine."

"That's a good thing right?"

"Not exactly Bones."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know if I can work with her anymore."

"Why not?"

"She... I just... she lied to me."

"About Luca?"

"About everything."

"What specifically?"

"She told me that she never had any interest in my brother."

"You didn't want her to hurt your brother?"

"I didn't want my brother to screw her over, just like he does everyone else in his life."

"Wait what does your brother have to do with the situation with the kid?"

"My DNA didn't match, but Luca and I share DNA."

"So..."

"She belongs to my brother."

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know. At this point... no," he shakes his head.

"Why are you so upset about this?"

"Luca has already had a crappy childhood. You throw my brother into the mix and crappy turns into horrible, and just wrong. Neither one of them want to be bothered with a kid. They're the type of people who shouldn't be allowed to procreate."

"You're mad you should calm down before you say something that you'll regret."

"Bones it's true. Neither one of them is fit to be a parent. Sometimes it's the people who don't have kids that should have."

"Like who?"

"Like Angela, and Hodgins, or you, but not Cam."

"You think that I should have kids?"

"I think that you would be a wonderful parent. You understand that when you are a parent your child relies on you. You could never hurt your child. But they, they don't understand, and they don't care. They don't see how hurt that girl is. Cam she doesn't have the time to be bothered. It's always been the job, no matter what. You don't chose work over your kid, ever."

"I agree. When you have children, you should devote yourself to them. If you don't want to, you should make the conscious decision not to have children."


	5. Chapter 4

"So Booth how old would Jared have been when..." Temperance asks from the passenger seat on their way to a crime scene.

"Sixteen," he answers her.

"But that..."

"Bones I don't know the answer."

"Did you know that he and Cam had..."

"No. I didn't know."

"So now what?"

"What do you mean now what?"

"How do you deal with Cam?"

"I don't."

"You can't just avoid her."

"Yes I can. She took advantage of my brother. He was just a kid. She took advantage of everyone in the situation."

"I don't think that just because Cam is older than Jared that she took advantage of him. He's very charming, and persuasive."

"Bones he was a sixteen year old kid. She was an adult."

"And you're sure that it could only be Jared?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you have any other siblings? Any other brothers?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Maybe it wasn't Jared."

"Don't you think that she'd remember if it wasn't Jared?"

"Maybe she doesn't remember at all. Maybe she was too drunk to remember anything."

"I guess. Can we talk about something else?"

"We can talk about dead bodies."

"Bones..."

"That's all I have to talk about right now."

"There's nothing else? No new men, no friction between your dad..."

"No, and there's always friction with my dad."

Around the same time Cam is sitting on a couch in Sweets office. She stares at her shoes as silence fills the room.

"Dr. Saroyan what are you here for?"

"I need some answers."

"And you need my help?" he questions.

"Yes."

"With what?"

"I have a daughter."

"Excuse me?"

"I have a daughter."

"Since when?"

"Since January 28th 1994."

"You have a fifteen year old daughter?"

"She's not fifteen yet."

"You have a fourteen year old daughter that I've never heard of before?"

"Yes."

"Who else knows about her?"

"Everyone knows about her now."

"What do you mean now?"

"She lived with her dad. Seeley knew about her, no one else here did."

"You never mentioned it?"

"It's complicated."

"So why did she come to live with you?"

"Like I said it's complicated."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me the truth."

"The man she was living with, the man I thought was her father was not."

"Was not what?"

"He's not her dad."

"So then who is her dad?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I thought that it could have been Booth."

"Did you talk to him about it?"

"Yes, I had a DNA test done, but it isn't him."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"So why do you look so confused?"

"They share some DNA."

"Meaning that they are related but he isn't her father?"

"Right."

"So you think that..."

"I don't know who it is. It could be Jared."

"It could be?"

"I don't remember sleeping with him. He was a teenager at the time. I don't think that I would have..."

"He was a minor?"

"Yes," she nods.

"And you don't think that you would have slept with him?"

"I wasn't attracted to him. He was an awkward sixteen or seventeen year old with a bad attitude."

"But?"

"I could have. I don't remember."

"Why don't you remember?"

"I don't know. That whole week was blur. Especially that night."

"What about the next morning?"

"What about it?"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember waking up on the couch."

"Your couch?"

"No."

"Whose couch?"

"Booth's."

"Seeley Booth?"

"No. He had moved out. He had his own place, he couldn't stand his dad."

"So then you did go home with Jared?"

"Yes."

"But you don't remember anything about that night?"

"I remember going to a party."

"With Jared?"

"I took Jared, but Booth was there too."

"How did the two of you get home?"

"I don't know. I don't remember leaving."

"What is the last thing that you remember?"

"I remember playing pool."

"And then?"

"And then nothing."

"Is it possible that someone could have put something in your drink?"

"I'm sure that they could have, there were a ton of people there, I didn't know most of them."

"So you have a fourteen year old daughter, and you don't have any clue who her father is?"

"Right."

"What is your relationship with her like?"

"She hates me."

"I'm sure that isn't true."

"I'm sure it is. Do you want to talk to her?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"I'll drop her off after school,"she tells him as she rises to leave.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure what?"

"Sit back down for a minute."

She sits, "What?"

"What is the name of your daughter's teacher?"

"She's got seven or eight."

"Who is one of them?"

"I don't know, she won't talk to me."

"What are her friends names? Does she have any new friends? Is she adjusting ok to school here?"

"I don't know."

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

"I don't know. Sweets she never talks to me, except to ask what we're having to eat, or if she can have lunch money."

"You need to talk to her, even if she doesn't want to talk to you."

"How?"

"It doesn't matter. You have to talk to her though."

"Why?"

"Because if you don't you might come home one day, and she won't be there."

"Sweets what are you talking about?"

"You have to remember what it was like at her age. You have to have a dialogue with her."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I've seen it before. Kids think their parents don't love them, or aren't interested in their lives because they don't ask. Those kids... they don't end up in good places."

"She's a good kid, she's smart and..."

"What if she's not?"

"What are you getting at?"

"You have to remind her that you love her no matter what."

"Are you trying to tell me something here?"

"Yeah, take an interest in your kid's life. I know that it isn't my place, but you have to take some time to think about what's really important to you. Is your job the most important thing in this situation?"

"You're way out of line Sweets."

"Maybe I am, but I find it remarkable that You've been at the Jeffersonian for a few years now and you never mentioned to anyone that you had a kid. You never once mentioned her. You don't have a single picture of her in your office."

"I try to keep my personal life separate from my work life. My career is what pays the bills. I don't need any distractions."

"Do you hear yourself? Your daughter probably thinks that she's just a distraction, an inconvenience, she probably thinks that you're ashamed of her."

"Why would she think that?"

"Maybe you should ask her."


	6. Chapter 5

At 3:30 Cam drops Luca off at Sweet's office. She heads back to the Jeffersonian. Sweets finds a young girl waiting in his office.

"Come on in," he tells her.

She comes in and takes a seat across from him.

"I'm Dr. Sweets. You can call me Lance if you'd like," he extends a hand.

"I'm Luca."

"Nice to meet you."

"You didn't know about me did you?"

"Not before today."

"It seems that no one really knew I existed before I got shipped back here."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen, I'm almost fifteen."

"So do you like living with your mom?"

"Cam?"

"Yes," he nods.

"No."

"How is your relationship with her?"

"I don't have a relationship with her really. I mean she pays my tuition, and room and board, and that's about all she does."

"Do you two talk?"

"No."

"Have you told her how you feel about moving in with her?"

"She's busy. She doesn't have time to talk to me. She works crazy hours. If she's not working she's working out, or cleaning, or doing something else. She doesn't really want to be bothered with me. That's why I lived with my dad, but then as it turns out he isn't really my dad."

"When you lived with him how often did you see your mom?"

"You mean Cam?"

"Is that what you call her?"

"The woman who was married to my father was my mom. Cam is... she's only my mom biologically."

"So how often would she come to see you?"

"Two, maybe three times a year."

"So... throughout the course of your life you've never been your mother's first interest."

"No. There's always something else. I understand that she... that her perspective is not what it should be. Motherhood was clearly something she never wanted."

"But?"

"She decided to have me. She consciously made a decision to have me. She should have been prepared to take part in my life. I don't expect that much... I just..."

"You need her to be your mother."

"I just had the rug ripped out from underneath me. The life I knew, the things that I was sure that I believed... none of them seem so concrete anymore."

"If you could tell her anything what would you tell her?"

"I just wish that she would be there for me. I don't need her to smother me. I have a good head on my shoulders, but it would just be nice if she was there for me. She's never been there for me when I needed her. Not once. At some point you begin to wonder why she even had me at all. Then I remember that appearances are everything to her. That's why she didn't have an abortion, it makes her look cold. That's why she doesn't mention me. It makes her look selfish if people know that she has a kid that she doesn't see. My dad... he would have taken me even if he knew that I wasn't his."

"Why do you think that?"

"He knows her. He knew that she couldn't, that she wouldn't ever raise a child. He knew she never wanted me."

"And you constantly ask yourself why she didn't want you. You ask yourself why you're never good enough."

"Yeah, but I've finally come to realize that it has very little to do with me. I mean consciously I know that, but sometimes it's still hard to understand. It had more to do with her than it did me, but... when you're a parent that isn't the way that things are supposed to be."

"You're a smart kid. What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to have a career that doesn't consume me. I don't want to be that sort of person."

"Because your biggest fear is that you'll end up like your mother?"

"Yeah. I mean I would love to be a doctor, but not like her. If I became a doctor people would compare me to her no matter how different we were."

"I know what you mean."

About ten minutes later Sweets' phone starts to ring. He pulls out his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sweets it's Cam."

"What's up?"

"It looks like it's going to be another couple of hours at least. I gave Luca money earlier. Just tell her to take a cab home."

"Cam do you really think that's a good idea? She's just a kid."

"She's almost fifteen years old. She'll be fine. And when you get the chance I was hoping that you could stop by and do a profile."

"Yeah I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks Sweets."

"Bye," he hangs up. He looks at the girl sitting on his couch.

"It was Cam?"

"Yeah. Why don't I take you home?"

"I can take a cab..."

"I'd feel more at ease if I drove you home."

"Ok," she agrees.

Sweets drops her off at home. He then heads to the lab to help with the case. He stops off in to see Cam. He finds her examining a body.

"What to you so long?"

"I took Luca home."

"Sweets I told you to tell her to take a cab."

"Do you really think that it's a good idea to let a fourteen year old girl take a cab home... alone?"

"She's a big girl."

"You just don't get it."

"Get what?"

"Nothing, never mind."

"Do you have something to say to me?"

"You're failing that girl. She just wants you to be there for her."

"I can't be there for her all of the time. I have to work. I have bills to pay."

"You could try to just be there for some of the time Cam."

"Sweets you're twelve you know nothing about raising a child. It is not as easy as it looks. My relationship with my daughter is complicated."

"You don't have a relationship with your daughter."

"Why are you acting so hostile?"

"You can't abandon your child and expect her to be ok with it. You can't expect her to turn out perfectly fine when you invest nothing in her."

"This isn't any of your business. You can't tell me how to raise my kid."

"You're not raising a kid. You're just co-habitating. You throw money at her and hope that she'll leave you alone. Is there something about her, or being a parent that you don't want to confront?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, is a lot less important than she is. This what you're doing here is less important than she is. At least it should be."

"You're telling me that the hundreds of people that I've caught and put behind bars is less important than one single person?"

"I thought that Dr. Brennan was cold, but... at least she understands."

"Understands what?"

"In _your _life there is no one more important than that girl. There shouldn't be anything more important that her."

"I take care of her. She's always well dressed, well groomed, and well fed. She always does her homework, and she always gets to school on time."

"I would like to put you in a state of hypnosis."

"Why?"

"Because your problem is subconscious there is something that you know, that you don't know that you know. There is a reason you feel the way you do toward her."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just come to my office tomorrow and I'll explain."

"Yeah whatever."

"I'm going to go talk to Booth."

"Go ahead Sweets. Please."


	7. Chapter 6

She sits on his couch quietly. He stares at her. She says nothing so he begins.

"You resent your daughter."

"No I don't," she disagrees.

"You do. I don't know why, but I know that you do."

"I don't resent her. Why would I resent her?"

"Because she held you back. Having her kept you from your goals in some way. You had to work harder and longer because of her. You've never viewed her as anything but a burden that's why you gave her to, the man you thought to be her father, to raise. You pawned her off on him."

"No I didn't."

"So what happened then?"

"I... I didn't want her to be raised by strangers."

"How long did you know him?"

"A couple of years."

"You didn't know him that well. You didn't know him well enough to entrust him with your child."

"I thought that she was his."

"So that makes it ok for you to be absent in her life?"

"I wasn't absent in her life."

"That's not how she sees it."

"She's a kid."

"Maybe you resent her because you were too young when you had her. You feel like she took your youth. I don't know why... but I know that you do."

"No I don't."

"With your permission I'd like to hypnotize you."

"Fine, but you're not going to find out anything earth shattering."

"We'll see."

He puts her under. Finally after several minutes her brings her back into a state of consciousness.

"Do you have any memory of what you just told me?"

"No," she shakes her head.

"That's not good."

"What's not?"

"What you told me is buried so deep in your subconscious that you won't bring it into your conscious unless you want to. I don't think that you do, so you probably won't."

"What are you saying?"

"If you really want to know start digging. Just be prepared for what you're about to learn, because it's the key to unlocking it all. Once you realize this you'll see your error, and you'll hate yourself."

"How can you know that?"

"Just trust me."

"So are you going to tell me what I told you?"

"I think that it's best if you figure it out on your own."

"But..."

"Trust me."

"Yeah, ok," she agrees.

She goes off to work. She's on the platform conferring with Dr. Brennan when Seeley comes up. He hands Bones a cup of coffee. He stands next to her and says nothing to Cam.

"Are you going to talk to me?" Cam asks.

"No I have nothing to say to you. Come on Bones we've got an interrogation to go to."

"Ok," she agrees.

He brushes past Cam. She smells the gel in his hair. Angela is coming onto the platform as the dynamic duo are leaving it.

"So I..."

"Angela it will have to wait," she flaps her hand.

"Cam are you ok?" Angela asks after noticing Cam's deer in the headlights look.

She stands there on the platform silently for a couple of minutes.

"Cam. Hello are you ok?"

"Angela I've got to go. Whatever it is I'm sure that it can wait. If not call Dr. Brennan and tell her."

"But..." before Angela can finish her thought Cam is gone.

In the FBI building Dr. Lance Sweets is finishing his lunch. He hears voices from the reception area. His door flies open, in comes Cam and the door flies shut.

"How the hell could you think that it wouldn't be ok to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"How is it ok for you to not to tell me that?"

"Cam calm down."

"I can't I..."

"Sit down. Let's talk about this. Why are you upset?"

"You know why I'm upset."

"I could guess, but it would be better if you told me."

"I remember."

"You remember what?"

"I remember what I told you, or what I think I told you... at least what I assume that I told you."

"Take a deep breath first of all. Second of all take a seat and then we will discuss this."

"Ok," she agrees.

_Flashback May 15__th__ 1993~ it was early... or really late depending on which way you looked at it. She woke up on the couch at Jared Booth's. Before opening her eyes she could smell hair gel. Upon opening her eyes she sees Jared's father standing over her with a wild expression on his face._

"_Mr. Booth do you need something?"_

"_No honey," he smiles a toothy grin. _

_She smells the alcohol on his breath. "I think that you should go to bed," she tells him._

"_Shh!" he places his hand over her mouth._

_She slaps it away. "What are you doing?" she asks still slightly intoxicated herself._

"_Shh!"_

"_Get out of here," she warns him. _

_He places his knee on her chest cutting off her oxygen supply. She struggles to breath and watches as he covers her mouth with one hand and fumbles with his belt with the other._

End of flashback.

"Does it make sense to you now? You didn't remember because you probably weren't conscious, and you repressed it."

"I..."

"Do you get it now? Subconsciously you knew. That's why you didn't want her. Maybe it did have something with you feeling that you weren't ready to be a parent, but it had to do with that too. You didn't want to see it, but subconsciously it was all you could see."

"What have I done? She's fourteen years old, and I..."

"You pushed her away to protect yourself, and to protect her."

"I'm her mother. My mother... she... I'm not like her. I haven't been there for her and I knew it. I knew that I wasn't there for her enough, but I..."

"You didn't want to see it. You didn't want to deal with it."

"I'm a terrible person, and an even worse mother."

"You're not a terrible person, you're a person who has a past. You're someone who has past traumas. You deal with some of them, but some of them, the traumas that are too big to understand, you just pretend that they never happened."

"I...," she runs her hand through her hair, "All of this time I've been worried about how I look, what other people think of me. I've stressed over finding the best job. I've worked my hardest to be the best in my field, and somehow I've failed to see that she doesn't care about any of that. She wouldn't care if I lived in a cardboard box."

"How do you feel right now?"

"Like a failure. I... I don't know her. I don't know her favorite color, or food, I don't know who any of her friends are, or if she even has any."

"And you're just now seeing this?"

"I... I thought that she was ok. I thought that one parent was enough, but... a girl needs a mother, and I've never been one. All I did was give birth to her."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. Where do I start? What can I do to make this right when her life everything that I've done is wrong?"

"Just be there for her."

"Right," Cam nods.

That evening when Cam comes home from work the house is quiet. The only light in the house that is on is the light in the guest room..her daughter's room. She stands at the door for a minute and a half before getting up enough courage to knock.

"What?" the voice on the other side grumbles.

"Can I come in?"

"I guess."

Cam opens the door and steps into the room. She finds her daughter laying on her bed.

"Are you ok?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm asking if you're ok."

Luca turns around and looks at Cam.

"Have you been crying."

"No why?"

"Your face is all red."

"It's not that big of a deal."

"Why don't you tell me what's going on? Why were you crying?"

"I hate it here. No one is ever home when I'm here. And school sucks... I don't know anyone."

"You'll get used to it."

"I don't want to get used to it. I want to go home."

"Luca this is your home."

"No it's not. This is your home, not mine."

"I'm sorry that you feel that way. What can I do to make you feel like this is your home?"

"Nothing, it's not my home. I wish..."

Cam stops her, "Stop."

"Why?"

"I know that you don't like it here. I know that moving is hard. I know that you hate me. I know that you hate me working so much. I also know that you need me. I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you. I want to be there for you now."

"It's a little late don't you think?"

"No."

"So have you met any cute boys?"

"What now after talking to me for three minutes you're my friend?"

"No. I just want to know what's going on in your life."

"Nothing. I go to school, and I come home and study, and then I go to bed."


End file.
